Current methods for the organization and presentation of large amounts of data are often inadequate to the needs of those in search of information. As an example, consider an Internet search engine such as Google.com or Ask.com. A user is first asked to input search terms in response to which the program conducts a search of its database and displays the results in list form in an order determined by the program's estimate of the relevance of each URL. In the case of Google.com, the ranking is based on the number of times other pages link to a particular URL. As is apparent to anyone with experience using either of these services, they are excellent at locating the proverbial “needle in a haystack,” if you know exactly what your particular needle looks like. However, in the majority of cases, users do not know what they are searching for with sufficient precision to take advantage of the program's capacity to accurately locate information. This often results in a long and laborious process with users clicking slowly through a very long list of URLs, manually checking each one.
Narrowing the scope of a search, and thus shortening the list of URLs to check, is currently accomplished by adding more search terms; however, when the user is unfamiliar with the subject area and the information associated with the terms provided, they may not be sufficiently familiar with the associated terminology to narrow the scope of the search appreciably without significant work.
It is also possible that the area of inquiry has changed or that the literature has changed since the user acquired familiarity with it. If this is the case then the user, even if they are familiar with some terminology, may not be familiar with all the associated terminology. If such a user proceeds to perform a very narrow search they run the risk of missing some results that are relevant. If such a user proceeds to perform a more general search they are hardly better off than a user with no familiarity with the subject.
It is also apparent that as the number of potential new terms that could be added in order to achieve the user's desired result increases, the complexity of the operation necessarily increases exponentially. The user currently has no way to gauge the possible effect of introducing a single new term to the search, to say nothing of multiple new terms. The repetitive process of “guess and fix it” can be both frustrating and time consuming.
In an attempt to increase revenue, Ask.com provides a method to drive users to their sponsors sites by suggesting search terms that are favourable to their advertisers and billing methods. Unfortunately, though this may drive additional revenue, it is not truly intended to facilitate searching and does not do so.
It is increasingly common for search results to be accompanied by advertisements. The primary goal of advertising along with search results is generally to use the search terms to tailor the advertising to the user performing the search. In theory, if the ad is related to the search results then it should be related to the user's needs at the time and is more likely to result in increased business for the sponsor, increased revenue for the service provider, and a higher number of satisfied customers. Unfortunately, the ads that are displayed on search services are often of little relevance to a user. This results in wasted effort on the part of both advertisers and search providers.
Alternatively, there are also times when a user wishes to expand search results. This happens when a user provides very specific or uncommon terms to a search engine. In this case the search engine returns few or even zero results. To expand a search there are several options. For example, expanding a search is performed by removing one or more search terms from the query. However, it is not always easy to decide which terms to remove or what will result. Removing one term may have not effect at all while removing another could greatly expand the scope of the search and yield many more results. Users are currently without any recourse except to blindly guess at which term to remove to achieve their desired result.
It is also apparent that as the number of terms that must be removed in order to achieve the user's desired result increases, the complexity of the operation necessarily increases exponentially. The user currently has no way to gauge the possible effect of removing a single term from the search, to say nothing of multiple terms. The repetitive process of “guess and fix it” can be both frustrating and time consuming.
It would be advantageous to provide a method for improved searching and for improved advertising in association with searching.